After her father’s death on a mountain rescue mission, Kaylie Ames watched her family shatter. She fled Tacoma for college in faraway Austin, figuring that even the worst campus drama would be a relief. But when her old friend Elliott turns up on his knees in the grocery store aisle, raving about something called a morphis, Kaylie feels compelled to enter Elliott’s unfamiliar world.

Guided by Elliott and his friends, Kaylie signs on to the massively popular online game Edannair. There she discovers a world of beautiful vistas and magical creatures, where people from all over the globe step into the roles of warriors on fantastical quests. But a real-world evil threatens the players: the mysterious Holder, leader of the elite team known as Sarkmarr, is coercing his followers into traumatic offline dares known as “morphis assignments.” To save her friends, Kaylie must infiltrate Sarkmarr and survive the Holder’s tests.

Will she find the courage there to hold her real-world family together?

“You fall at once into Kaylie’s world. . . . It will keep you turning the pages.” —Christie Golden, New York Times-bestselling author of Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi—Ascension

“My secret hope is that [Davis’s] strong heroine’s experiences in such a rich gaming world inspires more women to enter the game industry. . . .” —Billy Cain, vice-chairman, International Game Developers Association – Austin

“Davis creates both an everyday world and a world of adventure, then she laces them together and pulls tightly.” —Richard A. Bartle, PhD, Professor of Game Design, University of Essex